Forensic Psychiatry

By: Hailee Wallace

Forensic Psychiatry

By: Hailee Wallace

Psychiatry:

The study of treatment for mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behavior.

What is forensic psychiatry?

Forensic psychiatry is a specialized branch of psychiatry where medical information and legal information overlap. This field is broken into three different area's and each area deals with a different issue. These three fields are forensic psychiatry, clinical criminology, and psychiatry and law.

How is this field used in forensics?

The psychiatrists work closely with the legal system to give expert witness testimony in camp, they help make recommendations for defense tactics and sentencing, help solve the crimes, and treat mental illnesses in the criminals.

Requirements to go into this field:

13 years of schooling after graduating high school are needed!

Prerequisite pre-med collage courses- 4 years

Medical school- 4 years

Psychiatry residency- 4 years

Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship- 1-2 years

Real Case : John Hinckley

In 1981 John Hinckley attempted to shoot President Ronald Reagan, shot a secret service agent, a Washington D.C police officer, and Reagans press secretary, James Brady. His reason for his attempt was because he wanted to impress Jody Foster, an actress, who he was infatuated with. A jury acquitted him of 13 assault, murder, and weapon counts but after bringing in a forensic psychiatrist he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. To this day he remains in a hospital for the criminally insane.